"salt meat for brexfast, dinner and supper..."
Quote from Slave Labor in the Capital page 133 referring to the March 7, 1797, letter from Samuel Smallwood to the Commissioners:
Commissioners of the City of Washington, Gentlemen,
In Consideration of my past Services and present ------, I take the Liberty of presenting you a few Lines to give you and Information of my Dissatisfaction for the same in the first instant relating to my Diet which are nothing more than Salt meat for Brexfast Dinner and Supper which is neither palitabel nor Constitutional and to bye tea Sugar and other Vegitables out of Fifteen Dollars you must reasonably suppose Gentlemen will reduce that to a mear nothing and Fifteen Dollars Gentlemen suppose it to be in truly Clear is not an Object to Induce a man to take on him Self the Cares troubles and Confindments that I have on me which Causes me to take the liberty of Informing the Hon Board that I am not therewith Content which I am willing to Still remain for twenty Dollars per month which I hope Gentlemen you will allow me I hope Gentlemen you will receive the above as a most respectful Detail of matter hear with me and give it your most sincere Consideration and Dispense to me as soon as Justice to the Publick and Satisfaction to your most Obt. Sert. Saml N Smallwood March 7, 1797
One advantage to putting source documents on line is I get to read them again. I realize now that I misquoted Smallwood. He wrote "brexfast" not "breakfast."
In the book, I use this letter to establish that white laborers and overseers got the same rations as the slaves. The letter also shows that Smallwood had only a basic education. In another letter he complains about the time it takes him to keep the payroll for laborers in order. That suggests to me that when he complains of his "cears, troubels and confindments", he was not complaining about the difficulty of getting the laborers to work, but how difficult it was for him to keep accounts of their labor. He had four different categories of laborers to manage: slaves hired by the year, slaves hired by the month, and free laborers hired by the year and month.
In the book, I use this letter to establish that white laborers and overseers got the same rations as the slaves. The letter also shows that Smallwood had only a basic education. In another letter he complains about the time it takes him to keep the payroll for laborers in order. That suggests to me that when he complains of his "cears, troubels and confindments", he was not complaining about the difficulty of getting the laborers to work, but how difficult it was for him to keep accounts of their labor. He had four different categories of laborers to manage: slaves hired by the year, slaves hired by the month, and free laborers hired by the year and month.
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